Vehicle seats used in automobiles, trucks, and other vehicles may be relatively complex structures. Conventional vehicle seats included a metal frame, springs, and padding that were upholstered with cloth, leather or vinyl. In the last decade, new developments in vehicle seat design have lead to incorporating foam and other engineering materials to eliminate inner spring construction. Generally, a specially contoured frame is covered with foam on all sides and a complex cover is fabricated to encase the entire vehicle seat structure with cloth, leather or vinyl. The cover must be specially adapted to accommodate hinges, tilt mechanisms, and other seat adjustment mechanisms.
Vehicle seats must meet standards for strength and durability. In addition, vehicle seats should offer design flexibility to allow them to be adapted to various passenger compartment configurations and adjustment mechanisms and other accessories. The appearance of a vehicle seat should allow for appearance treatments ranging from luxurious to sport to economy. Vehicle seats must also allow for efficient utilization of expensive seating fabrics and leather treatments that are frequently demanded by consumers.
Other important considerations in vehicle seat design are cost constraints. Vehicle seat designs should maximize efficient use of materials and ideally reduce labor requirements to provide maximum value.
These and other problems and objectives relating to vehicle seats and methods of making vehicle seats are addressed by the present invention as summarized below.